Author Topic: Would you or not...what happened ....  (Read 1343 times)

Dodgylegs

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Would you or not...what happened ....
« on: 14:51:49, 14/01/21 »
Completed a Mapometer route map of all the 'out of front door daily exercises', noticed a pathway I was unaware of so off out to discover....
Outside the front door everything was very quiet, no one about, light hailstones falling. Didn't come across another soul, until meeting a builder working on hideous development in town. Had a chat, like all chats these days at a distance, about the huge size, which we agreed was totally wrong for the location. The path to the footbridge over the river was being fenced off, all that lovely smooth tarmac path now had deep holes in for large fence posts, so diverted around. Again no one around as I headed up to my destination amongst terrace houses.
Ah loads of steep steps....

Of course counted them ....90!
Then a pathway between railway cutting and houses...


Then a long straight path... no one in sight.

Arrive at some lovely bungalows, before walking into known territory. Enjoyed once again discovering areas I hadn't known of.
So then plan was to walk along pathway to what is locally known as 'Millionaires Row', again few people about just a couple of dog walkers and a bloke walking to shops.
Had an idea... few weeks back walked with a lovely fella, who walks everyday donating 10p for every kilometre he walks to Cancer Charity in memory of his late wife. He mentioned where he had been.. 'across stepping stones across river', had never heard on these so had a general idea where they were so set off to have a look.
On the way discovered some beautiful looking hens on the roadside, they like mine should not be outside due to Avian Virus.s
« Last Edit: 17:01:19, 14/01/21 by Dodgylegs »

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened...
« Reply #1 on: 15:26:25, 14/01/21 »
Report has somehow missed all of the follow off!
So here I go again....


Discovered 'Public Footpath' sign so must be it..

Down muddy track and meet an Ultrarunner out on a training run coming towards me, stopped for a chat, amazing people not the slightest bit out of breathe! Had just 'run across stepping stones, not slippy just a few feet wetting inches deep'. Gave directions and off they ran.
Further down the muddy track and there it is...



Had a closer look, pleased not going across today as it would take me too far away from home!





Walk back up track to road where I'm startled by a couple of feet moving about under a Christmas Tree, Guy is taking down lights! Had a laugh & a long chat... too long oh me back!... mainly about his old house, which is hundreds of years old, built without foundations! His 'hobby' or more likely his 'passion' is having it constantly restored.
OK walk back to front door starts with another trip through the woods, have loads of woods in and around City.


This path is usually either flooded with muddy water from bankside or has been partly washed away, but looked good today after recent frost & ice.

It had it's moments...





Along into next wood, floor covered in hailstones...

Famous Durham Canyon...

Views to hill of 200+ steps...

College Equestrienne Centre

Getting darkish, last dash of colour

Walk along riverside chatting to two 'Otter Watchers', swapping our Otter sighting tales. Then off via pigs, up through another wood and home, feeling invigorated, warm and..Oh that back!
« Last Edit: 16:59:45, 14/01/21 by Dodgylegs »

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...the answer...
« Reply #2 on: 16:58:16, 14/01/21 »
Completed a Mapometer route map of all the 'out of front door daily exercises', noticed a pathway I was unaware of so off out to discover....
Outside the front door everything was very quiet, no one about, light hailstones falling. Didn't come across another soul, until meeting a builder working on hideous development in town. Had a chat, like all chats these days at a distance, about the huge size, which we agreed was totally wrong for the location. The path to the footbridge over the river was being fenced off, all that lovely smooth tarmac path now had deep holes in for large fence posts, so diverted around. Again no one around as I headed up to my destination amongst terrace houses.
Ah loads of steep steps....

Of course counted them ....90!
Then a pathway between railway cutting and houses...


Then a long straight path... no one in sight.

Arrive at some lovely bungalows, before walking into known territory. Enjoyed once again discovering areas I hadn't known of.
So then plan was to walk along pathway to what is locally known as 'Millionaires Row', again few people about just a couple of dog walkers and a bloke walking to shops.
Had an idea... few weeks back walked with a lovely fella, who walks everyday donating 10p for every kilometre he walks to Cancer Charity in memory of his late wife. He mentioned where he had been.. 'across stepping stones across river', had never heard on these so had a general idea where they were so set off to have a look.
On the way discovered some beautiful looking hens on the roadside, they like mine should not be outside due to Avian Virus.share image

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened...
« Reply #3 on: 16:59:10, 14/01/21 »
Report has somehow missed all of the follow off!
So here I go again....


Discovered 'Public Footpath' sign so must be it..

Down muddy track and meet an Ultrarunner out on a training run coming towards me, stopped for a chat, amazing people not the slightest bit out of breathe! Had just 'run across stepping stones, not slippy just a few feet wetting inches deep'. Gave directions and off they ran.
Further down the muddy track and there it is...



Had a closer look, pleased not going across today as it would take me too far away from home!





Walk back up track to road where I'm startled by a couple of feet moving about under a Christmas Tree, Guy is taking down lights! Had a laugh & a long chat... too long oh me back!... mainly about his old house, which is hundreds of years old, built without foundations! His 'hobby' or more likely his 'passion' is having it constantly restored.
OK walk back to front door starts with another trip through the woods, have loads of woods in and around City.


This path is usually either flooded with muddy water from bankside or has been partly washed away, but looked good today after recent frost & ice.

It had it's moments...





Along into next wood, floor covered in hailstones...

Famous Durham Canyon...

Views to hill of 200+ steps...

College Equestrienne Centre

Getting darkish, last dash of colour

Walk along riverside chatting to two 'Otter Watchers', swapping our Otter sighting tales. Then off via pigs, up through another wood and home, feeling invigorated, warm and..Oh that back!

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened...
« Reply #4 on: 17:00:12, 14/01/21 »
Completed a Mapometer route map of all the 'out of front door daily exercises', noticed a pathway I was unaware of so off out to discover....
Outside the front door everything was very quiet, no one about, light hailstones falling. Didn't come across another soul, until meeting a builder working on hideous development in town. Had a chat, like all chats these days at a distance, about the huge size, which we agreed was totally wrong for the location. The path to the footbridge over the river was being fenced off, all that lovely smooth tarmac path now had deep holes in for large fence posts, so diverted around. Again no one around as I headed up to my destination amongst terrace houses.
Ah loads of steep steps....

Of course counted them ....90!
Then a pathway between railway cutting and houses...


Then a long straight path... no one in sight.

Arrive at some lovely bungalows, before walking into known territory. Enjoyed once again discovering areas I hadn't known of.
So then plan was to walk along pathway to what is locally known as 'Millionaires Row', again few people about just a couple of dog walkers and a bloke walking to shops.
Had an idea... few weeks back walked with a lovely fella, who walks everyday donating 10p for every kilometre he walks to Cancer Charity in memory of his late wife. He mentioned where he had been.. 'across stepping stones across river', had never heard on these so had a general idea where they were so set off to have a look.
On the way discovered some beautiful looking hens on the roadside, they like mine should not be outside due to Avian Virus.share image

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #5 on: 19:00:12, 14/01/21 »

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #6 on: 19:02:16, 14/01/21 »
That is me, torrent to the right was a sheer drop to a river below.

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #7 on: 19:49:16, 14/01/21 »
Reminds me of .... Close to the edge!


Would you attempt it now, gunwharfman?

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #8 on: 09:49:37, 15/01/21 »
I would try it again if I had the chance, after this Covid-19 problem I now think I'm game for anything!

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #9 on: 10:09:48, 15/01/21 »
Forgot to mention, I was on the GR10 route in France at the time. It had been raining continuously for over two days and we (a Dutchman and a German lady) were approaching the suspension bridge footpath over the Passerelle d'Holtzarte when suddenly about 100 yds ahead of us we heard a LOUD bang and a huge torrent of water, rocks, vegetation and earth 'exploded' from the right across our path and cascaded over the cliff edge. I've never experienced anything like it before or since, it was pretty scary at the time. By the time we took our boots off the water had calmed to a steady flow so we took a chance and walked across. We used our hiking sticks to make sure no deep holes were under our feet, that was our greatest concern. The weird bit for me was feeling small rocks and earth moving under and around my bare feet as I carefully strolled across, it felt as if I was walking on a gravelly conveyor belt.

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #10 on: 12:28:25, 15/01/21 »
Gunwarfman You do have some entertaining times in France!

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #11 on: 14:33:47, 15/01/21 »
I have a habit of remembering little event packages which seem to stick in my mind forever, it helps me to remember some of the details of the walks I've done and what happened where. When hiking and pitching my tent for the night I always concentrate on trying to remember something of particular interest that happened that day. In hindsight, I wish I'd kept a written record of these things but I didn't unfortunately, they are all in my head.

gunwharfman

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #12 on: 14:43:41, 15/01/21 »
Like for example, after crossing the suspension bridge we then heard an almighty THUMP and assumed it was a boulder of some kind that had fallen down someway ahead of us. The area to the right of our footpath was very steep and we worried about a mud avalanche (it had rained for over two days) but as we hurried on (we did, we really HURRIED!) and then discovered that the thump was from a cow that had fallen from the top of the cliff. It was dead, its eyes were still wide open, but dead! There was nothing that could be done. We carried on walking.

After about a mile, as our footpath climbed up a grassy hillside, we looked back and counted seven vultures that had already arrived and were circling overhead, and we could see two more on their way. We all wondered, how did they know???

Dodgylegs

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #13 on: 15:07:49, 15/01/21 »
I can feel a book coming.... tales of a ...


Had a quick look into the Vultures finding the cow so quickly....


Their sense of death, they smell it apparently.


Interestingly, an Oil Company discovered that by injecting a strong-smelling organic chemical called mercaptan into gas lines, they could readily find leaks by monitoring vulture activity above the pipelines!

jimbob

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Re: Would you or not...what happened ....
« Reply #14 on: 19:06:23, 15/01/21 »
Mercaptins are injected into natural gas distribution systems. The UK had more people using towns gas produced from coal which had a very distinctive smell than they dud in European countries. (Bombers removed most of the gas works throughout Europe in WW2) So when we converted to natural gas which doesn't have a perceptible smell they thought it safer to add something so people would have as better chance of setting gas leaks. Mercaptins is the chemical they chose. It didn't take much at all. In bulk it had a horrificly strong smell. You can imagine what a pinch in the apprentices overall pockets did.  :-\ I never did see any vultures being attracted to them.
In most of Europe mains gas doesn't smell, they didn't feel the need.
Too little, too late, too bad......

 

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